Slings And Arrows
Slings and Arrows is the first episode of Series 1. Synopsis When career criminal Wolfgang West gets put away for four years, his wife Cheryl decides it's time for her family to go straight. But can the Wests change the habits of a lifetime? Plot It’s one hell of a day for Cheryl West. On the up-side, her number one son is getting capped. Jethro West, LLB. He’s the first West ever to graduate university and Cheryl couldn’t be any more proud. There is no way she’s going to miss the graduation ceremony, no matter what else happens. On the down-side, her husband, Wolf, is getting sentenced on various burglary charges. But Corky, the family lawyer, has assured them he’ll be out in a year – at the most. It’s not great, but the family has lived through worse in the past. It’s an occupational hazard. Then there’s a familiar knock on the door and the family nemesis, Detective Sergeant Wayne Judd, leads his police team on yet another search of the West property. Which is when Cheryl’s day starts getting worse. The cops are looking for Jethro’s twin brother, Van. They are keen to question him about a home invasion in which an elderly Chinese lady has ended up in hospital. Cheryl, of course, denies all – the Wests don’t do violence – but Van’s unexplained absence from the house doesn’t look good. And when he does turn up, he has suspicious bruises all over his face. By then, Cheryl’s day has got a hell of a lot worse. , during Sergeant Judd's raid.]] She’s found out that her number one daughter, Pascalle, has been posing for some risqué photos as part of her dream to be the next Rachel Hunter. Then Wolf’s father, Ted West (a.k.a. Grandpa) has managed to burn down his house. Then, in the biggest blow of the day so far, Wolf gets sent away for not one, but four years. Cheryl’s going to be without her man and her children will be without their father for a minimum non-parole period of three-and-a-half years. Just when it looks like Cheryl’s day cannot get any worse, she finds out that her youngest, Loretta, has managed to avoid attending Shadbolt High School for months on end. (Which is an entirely achievable thing when you can blackmail the deputy principal with pictures of her having sex with Jethro back when he was 15.) But the crap icing on the crap cake of Cheryl’s day is added when she meets Tracey Hong. Tracey Hong has the evidence that proves Van did the home invasion (on Tracey’s family home) and unless Cheryl can retrieve a missing heirloom, then that evidence will find its way to Detective Sergeant Judd. Unfortunately Van, incorrectly thinking it might contain drugs, has managed to destroy the heirloom. When Cheryl discovers this, she also finds out that Van’s little foray into home invasion and the drugs trade was done with Wolf’s knowledge and, indeed, blessing. This is a complete betrayal of the code Cheryl has always lived by – the Wests don’t deal in drugs. But Wolf is unrepentant – look where the code got him. His view is ‘you go where the money is, or you get out’. So Cheryl, seeing the writing on the wall for her family, takes the second option. They’re getting out. They’re going straight. No more crime. The general consensus, from everyone from Wolf to Judd, is that this can’t be done. But Cheryl is a pretty determined woman when she puts her mind to it.